Category : IT How To’s

VPNs: Why, What and How – Part three

Welcome to the final instalment of VPNs WHY, WHAT AND HOW. In the coming weeks we will be releasing some instructional video blogs that will cover a few key areas around VPNs and PROXYs.

Our recommended provider for both VPNs and PROXYs is TorGuard. They provide monthly quarterly 6month or annual subscriptions for a range of services that have been covered in these articles. Their pricing is reasonable, service is excellent and they guarantee no logging with any of their services.

I’ve chosen three of the most common applications for using a VPN and expanded each of these into an instructional video. Click on these links to learn how to do this yourself!

How to safely access torrent sites by using a PROXY

How to access other GEO locations using a VPN. Example American NETFLIX.

**If you think you can work this out without the instructional video, here is a link which will take you to TorGuard website where you can purchase and install your own PROXY or VPN from our recommended providers. **

Remember! A VPN won’t protect you from all the online threats out there. While a VPN encrypts your information on its way to the server – once you access another website, if it isn’t encrypted or safe (HTTPS) then neither is any of the information you enter into that site.

CONSIDER THESE THINGS BEFORE CHOOSING YOUR VPN.

I have provided some recommendations for what VPNs are best above, if you are one of those people who like to do your own digging then be sure to keep these few things in mind.

Location: Keep in mind the server’s location and the exit locations you can choose particularly if you want to be able to access a network in a specific region. IE you are overseas and want to watch the football in Australia, there’s no point in getting a VPN with a server and exit location in America.

Logging Policies: If one of your main concerns is privacy/security, make absolutely sure you check your provider’s logging policies before you sign up. Some providers will log your online activity and on-sell this to a third party company. Others will log your activity and only store this unless audited by any government agancie in which they will hand over your information.

Free Vs Subscription: Some times in life you do get what you pay for, and if you don’t pay for your VPN or PROXY services then you will probably have a service that will log your information and probably even on-sell it to a third party company, or they will litter your browsing experience with tailored advertisements – they’ve got to make their money somewhere right?

Remember: that while using a VPN does dramatically improve your security and privacy, you are still not invulnerable to risk. It is recommended that you always use HTTPS sites when handing over personal information online, and make sure you are still careful about what you are downloading and have quality virus protection.You can find VPN providers that offer Anti-malware/ Anti-spyware features which is great for that extra protection.

VPN for Mobile and multiple devices: If you are paying for a VPN, you should be able to find a provider that offers consistent experience across all of your devices so you can use the same VPN on your laptop and your phone. You don’t want to be using two different VPNs with two different policies, this day and age you should be able to find the one size fits all VPN provider.

Price: Last thing to keep in mind is price. While it’s not always true, often you get what you pay for in this case. Free providers are good if you just quickly need to use the internet on a public network, but if you are looking at all the reasons to get yourself a VPN in particular security, then you are probably better going with a provider that offers a subscription as they generally take your privacy more seriously.

VPN clients will often skew their services towards specific uses so it should be pretty easy to find the right protocol for your needs. There are VPN’s specific for mobile devices, some VPN’s suite the occasional user and some are geared towards heavy downloaders or getting around location restrictions.

The last piece of advice I have on this is make sure you do a bit of research on your chosen provider before you sign up. There are a myriad of chat forums out there that will have already discussed your possible choice. Make sure you do a bit of reading before you lock it in.

That all from me for now, I hope this has been a useful article.

If you have any questions or suggestions for any other HOW TO posts on this subject please contact us on 1300266936 or you can email us here.